Hi to everyone,after owning my a4 for 9 faultless months yesterday morning discovered by a short 'eye test' under the bonnet my first problem: coolant bottle is way under minimum and under my car a spot of something sweet and pinkObviously coolant..got a torch and I followed the hose and pipes and I did notice a small leak somwhere behind cam belt and I m not so good with mecahanics but I guess is the water pump..called Audi Wimbledon straight away at 8 o clock on Friday but they can t take it till Monday morning so no car for three days. Now my car is under warranty for a couple of months still and hopefully will be covered by it..also in 31 of January my car is five years old so my cam belt is due accordingly to Audi uk..anyway as the botlle still has some coolant inn but just a bit should I complete it with some water? I don t have the coolant I think is G12 but is it worth it to buy a bottle or just drive it straight to the garage 5-7 miles away? Maybe top up with some wather on my way there as the car has a small loss but consistent so I keep the engine cool..Also I m wondering if I can make a deal with them to get my cam belt changed now as if the water pump is off and they need to do kind of the same procedure to get their hands on the pump? Any advices or ideas will be great appreciated as always. Adi
Coolant leak
- Thread starter IRONy_MAN
- Start date
So You reckon is not the water pump? I ve seen something strange for the last two weeks that the temperature on the engine drops at idle guite fast..is this normal? Or is related with the coolant issue? Thx
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I would always advise changing the water pump when the cam belt is changed on any car where the water pump is driven by the cam belt. If the bearing in the water pump fails it will result in loss of cambelt tension and failure of the belt the same as if it had snapped.Coolant should be changed every 5 years.
I would top the coolant up with water one time only won't hurt. Get the water pump changed and the coolant changed when the cambelt is changed.
I would top the coolant up with water one time only won't hurt. Get the water pump changed and the coolant changed when the cambelt is changed.
Thanks as always you re very helpful on forum. This was my plan anyway to change wather pump and cam belt in the same time..that s what I ve done one my A6 last year at an indy shop VAG specialists and you re right water pump and coolant should be changed with the cam belt kit.I ll see what they ll say on Monday.
Desertstorm, are you sure that the original G12, G12+ etc engine coolant is only good for 5 years? I know most aftermarket stuff is, but I thought that VAG and Ford plus maybe some others were safe for longer than that? I've always had new G12 etc coolant used when getting cambelts changed every 4 or 5 years, but now my car is chain driven - so the need to confirm this!
I looked in the service book for my 2008 A4 and it just has an antifreeze concentration check at 4Yrs or 38K miles. The wifes new Polo doesn't seem to mention anything about checking or changing the coolant other than the level.
It seems like most things technology moves on and the latest coolant formulations are probably good for the life of the car as long as people don't get topping them up with water and diluting them. The Polo has G13 coolant which seems to be the latest formulation.
It seems like most things technology moves on and the latest coolant formulations are probably good for the life of the car as long as people don't get topping them up with water and diluting them. The Polo has G13 coolant which seems to be the latest formulation.
Good news I got the car back from the workshop. I was right the water pump was done. My car is 4 years and 10 months and has 58600 miles on the dash and I m second owner and it was bought straight from Audi. All this description is just for some of us that like number and statistics. The car was fixed under extended warranty and just because my cam belt was due to the end of this month it was included in the same job. Price wise £1259 but this was for the insurace guys. I ve asked why this huge amount and they ve said that this are the prices when you go trough insurance and because of the high number of hours spent for this kind of job. Anyway the technician from the workshop tried to push the insurance company to pay for the cam belt kit as well due to contamination but they didn t accept it. After speaking with Audi Wimbledon they decided that I need to pay just for parts£190 +vat(for cam belt kit).That was all. The fixed price for the cam belt kit +water pump is £599. So all together it wasn t a bad one although still didn t understand why I didn t get any light in the dash telling me that I ve lost loads of coolant? Adi
This is what I ve bought from an Audi dealership close to me. I ve asked for the code I have on the tank cap (G12) so now apparently is G13 pink. £10+ vat for 1.5L. I topped up without diluting it as It wasn t missing a lot.
